Move King from G8 to H7.
The checkered board blurts out an awful sigh as the wooden stools of pawns and knights move motionlessly. Infinite possibilities on a finite board and only the most strenuous thinkers can survive. It's a game of the hunter and a prey, a constant transition between these two roles.
Have not read a novella as grappling as Stephan Zweig’s “The Chess Story” for so long. Having been to Austria not long ago, I’ve always loved to delve into its history beyond architecture, but to learn about a place through the eyes of a local writer. Stephan Zweig is my newfound gem. I have constantly fascinated and amazed by the fluidity and poignancy of Zweig’s writing. His bourgeoise and almost aristocratic flair of language acts like a sheer white chiffon that plays around with the antagonist’s motives and psychological thoughts with ease.
Beyond the surface of a heated game of chess between the world champion and a monarchist lawyer who has not played chess for more than 20 years, hides Zweig’s understanding and delineation of his world of yesterday – the times of Nazi Occupation.
The kind of despair, hopelessness and the mental torment that Dr. B faced is a reflection of Zweig’s own struggle. The sense of nothingness; the lost world of humanity. It is not hard to understand that his idealistic, almost dreamer-like portrayal of his world has collapsed. A pacifist at heart, he could not become the savior of his own country and committed suicide in 1942, only three years before the World War II ended. More importantly, isn’t it portraying the breakdown of a country, a war that was competing against no one else but itself? The “Black” and “White” not only represent the darkness and goodness of mankind, but also how a country can be torn apart by Germans fighting Germans (who are just merely labeled as Jews).
Moving the time frame forward to the 21st century. Are we not constantly faced with the dilemma of to and fro, of persuasion or command, of flight or fight? It is no wonder that Freud considers this book as a “little masterpiece”.
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